The Quilting Has Begun

I was daft to start the Joy banner in December. Here I am, well into week three of working on it with much left to do. The completed top looks rather good though, don't you think?

I know there are some who are into adding lots of quilting to every piece, but I want to keep this one simple. All three prints do have metallic gold accents so I'm using gold metallic thread. That's a very old spool of Coats metallic thread on the left that I'd really like to use up, now that I have a more reliable YLI gold metallic thread on hand. Wondering what I should use as a bobbin thread, I discovered I had multiple spools of Sulky 60 wt PolyLite thread which I must have gotten in a grab bag special on Superior Threads website, and which I'm not sure I've actually used. But there was the perfect color (matches more closely than the photo implies) and the description that came with it does say it is perfect to use with metallic threads.

This combination is working well as I do a slow crawl stitching in the ditch around the borders and sashing. Slow because these stitches really show and I need to stay right in the ditch and because I don't want to put stress on the metallic thread such that it will suddenly fray and break on me. So far, so good.

Tried to video the way that thread really does sparkle, even in the ditch but it didn't capture very well. Click for a larger view. But if you listen closely, you can hear the Christmas music I'm listening to while stitching, compliments of The Jazz Groove. I think I may have to pause work on this for a few days to work on Christmas cards, but I am determined it will be done. at least enough, to hang on the wall by Christmas Eve.

Going With My Heart's Desire

I'm getting there - down to adding a final border and then quilting the holiday banner. But I'm nearly out of bobbin thread and late posting this week so thought I'd pause to show you my progress. Above you see all the small and odd shaped pieces ready to go (strips for borders are pinned to the design wall), the small pieces of paper on each one labels so I know which piece is which when I start following directions to join everything. There were enough different pieces to use up every letter in the alphabet! You may note two things here: first, wasn't I contemplating ditching the pieced letters for appliqued ones? Yes, yes I was. And as I cut the final little piece and stood back, it dawned on me I'd just cut all the pieces for those letters, so I guess they were going to get pieced!

The other thing you may note is, in spite of encouragement from Jan in the comments on my last post to just go with the lighter sprigged fabric for the background, I instead used that warm tan, the fabric that I was first drawn to. Sometimes your first instinct is the right one, and believe it or not, when I did one final audition with sashing strips laid out on each fabric to form the size of the letter blocks and the pieces of a letter placed within, I was very surprised to find that the pattern in the lighter fabric fought for dominance over the dark green shifting it back while the darker fabric let the letter shine. It gave the whole thing a much warmer look, more my heart's desire, that rustic country or antique look that I am so drawn to. I've struggled a bit with my camera to capture it accurately but the picture at the top does a good job. 

I proceeded with piecing those letters, which I feared would be a pain, but they really were not. Everything matched up really well, and except that there were lots of short seams, they came out well. I added sashing on each side and sashing with cornerstones on the other sides, and when I spread it all open on my work table, it was instant joy! Honestly, I was filled with such happiness - loving the fabrics and how they worked together and loving how well this was going. This section now has a tan border and the checkerboard borders on three sides.

Next up would be fusing applique to the curved section that would be at the top of the "joy" section. The pattern called for a heart with "commas" on either side, but I'm not one much for hearts on my quilts (although there have been exceptions). When I looked at the picture of the Christmas quilt I'd made for my mil, I was reminded that it used bows and holly leaves appliques. I wondered if they were sized to fit in this new space, and got out the binder with its documentation file to see if I had saved templates. Yes I did, and yes they were the perfect size. Ah yes, these are the moments that justify to me my penchant for documenting and saving!

And here they are, fused in place and waiting for some stitching. Sylvia had encouraged me to use some glitzy thread around the letters, and I had indeed been thinking to do that. Two of the fabrics do have gold highlights on them, and a little gold thread holding down the edges of  the leaves and bow would be a perfect accent.

Ok, that wasn't so bad, once I stopped procrastinating . . . but I was heaving sighs of wishing I didn't have to tackle the next step - curved seams! Not one, not two, but three of them. You'd think I'd never sewn a curved seam in my life but in fact, I've sewn more than I can count and some so tight they should have been appliqued. Kind of a master at it in fact. I think I was sighing because to do these seams well, it takes a lot of pinning. But even that went fairly easily and soon they were all done. And once again, the finished look filled me with so much satisfaction and, yes, joy. And I think part of that joy is because of how well designed this pattern is, with good instructions and no errors to complicate things. I could just go on autopilot and get pleasing and precise results. That surely hasn't been the case with that knitted cardigan; the contrast couldn't be more obvious. 

I want to thank my "coaches" and "cheerleaders" who commented on my last post. Your insights and encouragement really do help me soldier on! Now. back to the studio to fill that bobbin and get the last border sewn on. :-) 

New Project

 

On the left you can just see a picture of the banner 17" x 32"

I must be daft . . .

It might have been the after effects of the turkey dinner, that full and contented feeling letting one's mind wander. And it was wandering as I sat on the sofa contemplating how I would decorate the livingroom this year for Christmas. I have a Christmas topper I throw over the big trunk, but as I did a mental inventory of quilts for the wall, I could think of nothing with a holiday theme to replace what now hangs in the space where I rotate my art quilts. For no reason I can fathom, the idea suddenly popped into my head that I could make something to hang there. I knew just the thing, a "JOY" quilt pattern I'd been saving for years - the pattern torn from a 1991 issue of Quiltworks magazine. Sure, I could probably finish it this week, if I put my mind to it. And my mind was definitely on board. By Sunday I'd found the pattern and dug out fabric - I have quite a bit of Christmas fabric I rarely find reasons to use - and started cutting strips. Monday I cut more strips and worked out how to copy an odd shape in the pattern. 

Yesterday it was sewing time, getting those strips sewn together and subcut into pieces for the checkerboard inner border. As long as I've been away from traditional piecing like this, I hadn't forgotten a few tricks of the trade. The strips were cut 1-1/2 inches wide and those subcuts would also be that wide, 53 of them. To keep from making errors lining up my ruler, I placed a stickie note on the underside along the 1-1/2 inch mark. Oh, that really helps to speed things up.

Forty of the subcuts then got sewn together to make checkerboard strips - twenty for each side. The remaining thirteen subcuts were sewn together to run across the bottom connecting the two sides. 

Then today, I ground to a halt. You see, the pattern called for muslin for the light areas and I definitely was not going to do that. Instead, I was seduced by the tan fabric on the left, rich and mottled and looking so good with the red and green fabrics I'd chosen. But as I looked at the picture in the pattern, I wondered if it was too dark rather than just rich and warm. I revisited the stack of Christmas fabrics and pulled the one on the right with its off-white background with its own sightly mottled surface and those sprigs with red berries. It's one that came from my mother-in-law when she gave up on quilting and sent everything she had to me. She'd wanted to make a Christmas wallhanging with that one, had a pattern from a book picked out but eventually lost interest. So I made it for her with the fabric she'd sent. It's closer to what the pattern calls for and I know that is clouding my judgment on which to pick. Once made up, will I be disappointed with the rich tan because it reads too dark, or disappointed in the lighter sprigged one because it reads too bright? My auditioning isn't getting me anywhere.

As if that weren't enough to put the skids on, the next step is actually making the letter blocks. I can get to cutting some of the pieces that are from the red fabric, but can go no further until I make that background fabric choice. But boy, is that going to be a lot of fuss, all those piece with angled ends. I do know a method to make it easier, but I'm not looking forward to it. Instead, in my weaker moments, I've been wondering about just cutting out the letters whole and fusing them to the squares of fabric. Well, I have to do something today . . . What do you think about all this?